Rok 1836: Juliusz Słowacki pod piramidami
The Year 1836: Juliusz Słowacki by the Piramids

Summary/Abstract: Among the many Polish travellers who visited Egypt in the 19th century, Juliusz Słowacki deserves special attention. He stayed in Egypt from October 20th, 1836, to the end of that year. Słowacki’s companion in the travel was Zbigniew Brzozowski, and also, though separately, two brothers and their friends Stefan and Aleksander Hołyński made a trip to that country. All of them, with the exception of the émigré poet, were wealthy landowners. Słowacki visited Alexandria and Cairo, saw the inside of the Pyramid of Cheops and climbed up its top, as well as up the Nile reached the island of Philae in the South. On his way he took great pleasure in the ruins of temples and pharaohs’ tombs. He opposed the profanation of tombs and robbery of Egyptian antiquities done by European art collectors and their agents. An effect of Słowacki’s travel were poetic reflections about the history of Egypt and the monuments of Egypt. The reflections surpass the “Egyptian” pieces by Western poets contemporary to Słowacki, not excluding “Ozymandias” by Shelley who, after all, never went to Egypt. Słowacki’s notebook from his travel to the East, containing images, notes and poems, has recently been found. A part of Krasiński Library collection, for many years considered as destroyed during the war, the notebook, following many war vicissitudes, reached a library in Moscow and is presently a subject of editorial activities performed by Polish specialists within the framework of the project sponsored by the Polish National Centre for Science (grant nr. NCN 2014/15/B/H52/01360) and directed by professor Maria Kalinowska.

• Details
• Contents